Hello everyone! How are you?

I just wanted to give many thanks to though who may or may have mistakenly viewed this game Witch V Witch. Because of that, Witch V Witch is currently the most viewed game that’s currently in my Itch.io. However, as you may know, it’s far from done, and me being a solo dev, a lot of time and effort is going to get put into the game. For those who have seen this game, I obligated to really make this game better than you last seen it, because it shows that, in one way or another, people are actually interesting in this game. That’s why I’ve been working on this game constantly over the past several weeks.

There’s lots I want to go over with this latest Devlog Update, and it may excite you as I talk with you about the plans I have with the game moving forward, and what changes I may have with it, and what the game may look like.

First of all, I’m really working towards getting Luu Serrulata (the first boss of the game) a much better system in terms of spawning bullets and doing patterns. At this point, I have gotten the concepts of “Emitters” to work perfectly in the game, but there are still a few things to work out, such as performance. That’s a 20% that I’ll come to figure out in the near future.

Because the whole Danmaku System will change with the game, that’s perhaps one of the things that’s taking me the longest time. Making new scripts and classes and figuring out a workflow on how to have all of this to work. This was something that I wish wasn’t, but then again, I want to make this game better than what it is, because I know that there’s some sort of audience that finds interest in this game.

With that said, reinnovating the Danmaku System was only the icing of the cake. I now came to realize that this game lacked a story. The fact that there was no story, I honestly had no idea who the game would go. So, the first thing that I got started on was World Building, and really getting to know the characters of the game with who and what they are. This game apparently takes place in the Land of Magic, where magic users basically inhabit the land. That includes creatures of magic capabilities as well, not just Wizard or Sorcerers. However, there’s small parts of the island where you will find a society of Witches. This is essentially the setting of the game. The fact the game is named what it is, I wanted to have the emphasis of “Witches”.

That then brought up another question as to what a Witch in this world is. I thought about this for a couple of days before I came to something pretty good. A Witch in this world is mainly towards any female magic user that is under the control of a Witch’s Cult. By joining a Witch’s Cult, they are branded the Cult’s Insignia somewhere on their bodies, thus identifying them as Witches. With this definition alone, I was able to incorporate more characters into the game of different species (catering to the Land of Magic) while still branding them Witches (with a few exceptions). However, I don’t want to spoil any other characters aside from Raven Lilac and Luu Serrulata. Instead, with this information, I was now able to give Luu an actual motive in the game that will help us with not only progressing the story, but the game as well, which was the issue that I was having with this game.

Luu Serrulata is deemed as the Sakura Witch, capable of both Dark and Fire based magic. However, which the cult she’s associated with, she’s destined to be corrupted (and she in a sense). Little did you know, Luu is actually a sweetheart. Those who are in a Witch’s Cult are usually burdened by whatever rules and restrictions they have (and it goes as far as manipulating the amount of magic they have or controlling how much they can actually hold). Not only that, but cults can range from being good to just darn right corrupted and twisted. Luu happens to be in a cult that very twisted, thus her somewhat questionable personality.

For this reason, she wants to be powerful, and she do whatever it takes. During the run of the game, the Land of Magic is dealing with strange but really strong density of dark magic leaking from somewhere in the mountain. It is said that there’s a witch’s grave, one who is part Demon. According to some records, she had actually died centuries ago, and they believe she’s the source of all the dark magic. Being knowledgeable of this, Luu sees this as an opportunity to consume all of dark magic at the source, both being powerful and getting rid of the source. However, if one were to know that she obtained enough power to kill any Cult Leader, that would essentially cause a whole fuss over the Land of Magic, potentially causing a cataclysm.

With knowing what Luu is doing is dangerous, you play as either Raven Lilac or Mirrah Maplestar (Raven’s partner) to stop Luu from attempting this stunt, thus validating the story element of the game and enhancing the game’s potential.

I also spend days on end thinking about what some of the stages may look like, as well as the WitchVWitch OST (I already have Luu Serrulata’s Boss Theme created as of the posting of this devlog).

So yeah, I wanted to take a lot of time really know “What I’m making?” I wanted to know what this game is really about, so that way, when I an idea of who each character is, and knowing what kind of world they live it, it would make this game much easier to make. I actually came to this realization when I looked up some interviews with ZUN, the creator of the Touhou franchise. From then, I learned that before making the actual game, we would focus on the world building, drawing out and knowing the characters, and then making the soundtrack of the game. Once he had everything, we would then implement everything into the game, and I thought that perhaps I should do the same if I want to get this game successful.

I’ve also been working with pixel art for a while, and I’m thinking of an aesthetic that I want to include for the game. I have already redrawn the look for Raven and Maple, but still have yet to be animated. I still need to also redo Luu’s character look, but that has much of how the game should flow. You know, the player experience. I have thought of a couple of ideas that puts a twist of Danmakus, and I wanted to include Dynamic Camera scaling (which I have done before but with how I have 2 cameras in the game; one for the Player UI, one for the actual game scene), it might have been some issues.

With that said, I’m really giving it my all to bring you guys an even better version of the game. So from here on, Witch Verses Witch will be in a form of a demo (I’ll be sure that I update the name in Itch.io), showing the fight between Raven and Luu, and fighting the first boss. There will be limited features in the game, but if you do enjoy it, I would like you to support the remaining makings of the game continuing on (eventually I’ll set up a Kickstarter or something just to get the game going, as well as other things that may help the flow of production a lot easier).

I apologize that this devlog came in so late, but this log has definitely more content that any of my past devlogs. That’s because that there’s a lot to say, and I wanted to keep you guys updated. Please continues to support me from here on! I’m really excited to get this game going. Even though that this game has only 70+ views and 10+ downloads, that’s all the motivation that I need. I want more people to see and download this game, so I’m going to take my best foot forward to assure that you guys get what you were hoping for (at least close to it). That’s all I have to say for this devlog. You can wait for another devlog, or another game update, or perhaps try out the game now (despite that it’s far from finished). You should be expecting another update in about a month or so, and I’ll do my very best to keep everyone posted. With that said, I hope everyone has a great day!